Sunday, February 28
We followed our normal Sunday routine for most of the day…the three of us got ready for church and then Mother waited for TJ to pick her up while Barbara and I drove up to Yantis for Sunday school and the morning church service…Brother Kent Pace, our interim pastor, was in fine form this morning and gave a challenging and heartfelt sermon.
We went to Big V after church (after stopping at the clubhouse to order a couple of take-out plates of chicken-fried steak, onion rings, French fries, and salads) and whiled away the afternoon. I worked outside clearing some of the debris from the stream that runs through the gully beside us.
About the time I started working, I heard a hearty, “Welcome home,” and turned to see Linda, our nearest neighbor. She stopped by to see what had been going on with us and ended up visiting with Barbara for an hour or so.
When the visiting was done and I had done about all the sawing and hauling that I wanted to do, we shut the place down and returned to Mineola in time to feed the Spike and Bonita and get a light supper going for Mother and us.
When we finished eating, I started sanding some pieces of wrought-iron that the previous owners left in the yard when they left and Mother bought the house. Nearly all of the wrought-iron has seen much better days, but we are going to work them over with steel wool and repaint them. This introduction to the project took longer than I thought it would, as there was a great buildup of rust and dirt on the four small pieces that I tackled first. There is no doubt now that this will be a continued story.
Monday, March 1
Happy Birthday to Jerry Terpening in Artesia, New Mexico!!!
Wow…the first two months of the year are now history and here we are, wading into March!
March came in like a monsoon this morning with occasional downpours interrupted by bouts of heavy showers…not a good day to begin painting the wrought-iron pieces that I cleaned yesterday.
We called TJ and invited her over for lunch, since she was spending her morning running around town doing errands. Afterward, we decided to drive along Highway 69 behind the Extreme Makeover house and try to get some photos.
That led to the bright idea of trying to find the housing addition that Marge, TJ’s friend, lives in and that Gene and Michelle are looking at as a possible place to build. The bright idea got dimmer and dimmer as we got ourselves totally lost (although we did find the Wood County Airport and the Mineola landfill). Intrepid explorers that we are, we continued making turns onto county roads that we were certain would get us back to Highway 69, and as we made the last turn that should lead us back into town, we saw a sign that said we were now on state road 37 and just 2 miles from Quitman. We have no idea how we managed it, but we were far, far away from where we thought we were!
Since we were so close to Quitman anyway, we decided to drive on up the road a few miles to Holiday Village to check on Big V. Big V was doing just fine, but we noticed that several more tree branches had found their way to the ground and we had about an inch and a half of water in the rain gauge.We returned to Mineola and Mother’s house to take care of all the evening routines. For some reason we weren’t sleepy when it was bedtime, so we decided to go to Sonic for a late night treat and then around 11:00, we drove out to the Extreme Makeover house to take some pictures.
Tuesday, March 2
After breakfast we went outside to begin painting the four pieces of wrought-iron that I had cleaned and while the first coat was drying, I applied the steel wool and a fair amount of elbow-grease to another piece, a fence section that we plan to move from one end of the flower bed to an area just beside the sidewalk and the front porch.
This was also a house cleaning day. We didn’t have that in our lesson plans, but when the sun came out after all those days of rain and clouds, we could see all the dust that had accumulated on the furniture and floors. But, with a couple of hours of dusting, polishing, sweeping, and mopping, we managed to get Mother’s house looking like a showcase.
Today was Primary Election day in Texas. Since Barbara had her Bridge meeting at church tonight, we decided to leave Mineola early enough to stop in Quitman, our new precinct, to cast our ballots. We just didn’t know how difficult that would turn out to be.
Our idea was that we would just drive to the courthouse and either vote there, or find out where the polling place was. That sounded reasonable enough to us, and we knew we were on the right track when we walked into the courthouse and saw two men, one a State Trooper. We also said a sign telling us to go to the Carroll Green Civic Center on McAlister Street, so all we needed to know, since our knowledge of Quitman is how to find Sonic, Brookshire’s, and the Dairy Queen, was where McAlister Street was.
One of the men in the courthouse said he wasn’t from Quitman and didn’t know anything about it. The State Trooper said he didn’t know where the Civic Center was, but he would call the Sheriff’s office to find out. Several minutes and many questions later, the trooper said he was sorry, but no one in the Sheriff’s office had a clue about either McAlister Street or the civic center…not a good sign.
I then went into the treasurer’s office and asked the receptionist about the polling place, McAlister Street, and the civic center. She just gave me a blank look and said she didn’t know anything about any of those things. The sun was now out, but the day was getting bleaker.
Finally, a woman from one of the offices came out and gave us the directions, which led us to a building behind the Dairy Queen. And oh yes, there’s a large sign on the highway that gives the directions to the civic center, but that’s helpful only if one knows that’s where one wants to go. But now we know.
Once in the center we hustled right on through the process of being certified and getting our ballots. Barbara finished marking her ballot and went on outside to wait for me. When I was finished marking my ballot, it took four tries and a technician before the machine finally accepted the ballot…guess this just wasn’t my day to be a good citizen!
When we got to our lot, I got out and started working while Barbara drove on to Yantis for her meeting. I worked outside until it was too dark to see what I was doing and then went back inside to spend some computer time. The only problem was that I couldn’t get a wireless signal, no matter what I tried, so I gave up and put in the final DVD of Victory at Sea and watched one of the episodes that I hadn’t seen yet. It was kind of like being at home again.
Barbara has been wanting to get photos of the ladies who attend the bi-weekly Bridging the Gap meeting at our church, but neither of us can seem to remember to grab a camera (if you can believe that) prior to driving to Yantis. Barbara remembered it this evening and came up with this collage of the ladies who attended tonight.
Wednesday, March 3
Happy Birthday to Barbara Francis Yehl in Victoria, Texas!!!
We went back north this morning. Barbara had her Bible study group at the church and I spent the morning clearing brush and sawing firewood around the lot. We’ve had so much rain lately that the ground around Big V is pretty spongy, but I was able to get down to the end of the gully and cut a channel to one of the two drainage tubes that run under the road to the clubhouse lake. I’m hoping that will ease some of the problem caused by water backing up into the gully when we have the torrential downpours.
This afternoon we went to the Walmart parking lot to catch a shuttle bus to the Extreme Makeover site. With tomorrow as the “Move that bus” day, the crews were all busy trying to get the house completed. It was amazing how much has been done in just a few days, but it was obvious that there was much to do in the next 20 or so hours. We thought we might get to see the furniture move-in, but that was taking longer than expected, so we took what photos we could and then returned to the shuttle bus area.
Wednesday night is hamburger night at East Fork and tonight Gene and Carolyn joined Gene, Michelle, Barbara, and me for the extravaganza. Conversations and quips were flying all over the place as we talked, laughed, and ate (and ate, and ate, and…). Gene Young got a good dig in at Barbara when he asked her which shop she had taken her computer to. She couldn’t figure out what he was talking about until he told her that he just figured her computer must be in the shop because she hadn’t posted last week’s blog…guess someone really does read these things!
Thursday, March 4
Today was “Move that bus” day at the Extreme makeover site, but we didn’t join the crowd. They started running the shuttle buses at 7:30 this morning and stopped the service when the neighborhood was packed. People were told beforehand that once they were there, it would be about four hours or so before they could even think about leaving, so they needed to bring food and drinks. Local television and radio news coverage of the event was suspended around noon in compliance with ABC and Extreme Makeover restrictions.
We wish we could take credit for the photo of the completed house, the bus, and the crowd, but have to defer instead to whoever did get this shot and posted it on a website.
We spent most of the day just hanging around the house and taking care of small chores…Barbara shoveled some more dirt from the bottom of the driveway and I painted some of the wrought-iron pieces. The weather was nice enough that I was able to take Spike on a couple of walks. He likes to go up the street to the mailbox and then walk around the square.
Friday, March 5
This morning we asked Mother if she’d like to invite Elmer and Jennie Bunn and TJ over for lunch. She thought that would be fun, so we called them and they all agreed. At that point, we kicked into high gear to get lunch prepared and the house set up for company.
Barbara’s menu consisted of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, green beans, and apple dumpling dew for dessert.
Between dish preparations we also spruced up the outside of the house, setting five of the finished wrought-iron pieces around one of the flower beds in front of the house, and a fifth one, a hummingbird sculpture, at the entrance to the driveway.
We are able to laugh now at Elmer’s stories about his school escapades, but I told him that if I had been his principal, he would definitely have been on my “frequent flyer” list. To his credit, Elmer said that though he had received many paddlings through his school years, he never received one he didn’t deserve.
When lunch was over and the first load of dishes was churning in the dishwasher, we retired to the living room for even more stories from Mother’s and Elmer’s childhood days…just wish we could have had a video camera to have recorded the stories and the way Elmer’s eyes twinkled as he started a new story.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet and we just whiled away the time by doing not much of anything.
Saturday, March 6
I guess all the excitement of yesterday wore us out, because after waking up this morning and eating breakfast, all three of us went back to bed for some extra sleep time.
It was such a warm and pretty day out that I entertained thoughts of firing up the motorcycle for a ride, but everyone in the neighborhood was our working in their yards and we realized that we had quite a bit of work to do in ours. So, I broke out the new hedge clippers and started trimming the hedge plants that Mother has growing around her yard. I’ve never lived where I had hedges, so trimming and shaping was a new experience for me.
In the meantime, Barbara tackled Mother’s sunroom at the back of the house. After a couple of conversations about what we were doing with the wrought-iron, Mother said that we could take her table and chair set from the sunroom to be refinished and set on the front porch.
Tonight was Bingo night at the clubhouse, so Barbara and I drove up to Holiday Village to join in the fun and fellowship. We figured that we had already used up all our luck at the last Bingo night when each of us won a game, but Barbara began the night with a win in the first game. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there, but we did have fun playing the game and visiting with the folks around us; and, we walked out with a $10.00 Walmart card for our efforts.
We got a call from Barbara’s sister Carol in Roswell tonight. Cal, who has had severe lung problems for several years, is not processing the oxygen that is being pumped into his lungs. His condition is very severe and he is under hospice care; today they brought a hospital bed into the house to make him as comfortable as possible.
With that news, we ended our week by making mental preparations for a trip to Roswell as soon as we learn that our brother-in-law has passed away.
“Don’t put the key to happiness in someone else’s pocket – keep it in your own!” – Unknown
From Heritage Square in Mineola, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
Just a final note:
The Extreme Home Makeover was just about the biggest thing that ever hit Mineola, and many community members became involved as volunteer builders, shuttle bus drivers, guides, or just as interested spectators.
All who heard the story of the family who received this wonderful gift agreed that no one was more deserving. Mike and Katrina Carr adopted four young siblings, all of whom have significant physical disabilities, from Kazakhstan. One of the girls has had two legs and one arm amputated, but with the aid of prosthetic devices, has become an accomplished athlete and wants to become a swimmer.
The house they were living in had only one bathroom and it wasn’t handicapped accessible. The electrical wiring was substandard, and they had numerous problems with the septic system.
The new house, with a total of 4,800 square feet and easy accessibility for parents and children, will literally give the Carr family a new lease on life.
The Mineola edition of Extreme Makeover is scheduled to air on ABC in its regular time slot on Saturday, May 9.
